I know. Spending every last dime on drilling might buy us an additional year or two. But then we will really be out of ideas.
It will take at least 2 years of building 1000 new rigs per year, to bring the rig count back to where it was in the ‘70’s. Then, to get that oil into production will take at least another 3 to 5 years. (Some as much as 10.)
The lease where my husband works has wells that are 50 years old that are still in operation and are expected to keep producing for 20 years. This is one small lease.
In California alone there are reserves that are off limits to recovering oil but could be brought into production tomorrow with the stroke of a pen. We have plenty of oil.
If you watch the stupid channel “Green Planet”, you will see example after example of people who have all the modern comforts of home, and are completely energy independent.
It costs a bit of money, but three trillion dollars would pretty much do it for 300 million of us (about $10,000 per person). That’s a LOT of money, but about what the government spends in a year.
So while we WON’T make everybody energy-independent, we have the ability to do so, just not the reason to do so.